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“Bailey.” Raymond rose politely to his feet as the maître d’ escorted her to the table several moments later. “Your timing, as always, is faultless.”
And what a change. She allowed him to grip her hands with his own cool, baby-soft ones and place a kiss on her cheek with his too-damp lips.
She had to force back a shudder of revulsion before drawing away from him.
“Hello, Mary.” Bailey turned to her friend and bent to kiss her pale face. “How are you doing?”
“Very well, my dear,” Mary declared, a genuine smile gracing her lips. “I hear you’ve picked up a beau since coming home. A very exciting one.”
Bailey glanced in Raymond’s direction, knowing he would be more than aware of John’s background and wondering how much he had told his wife.
“Mary enjoys listening to rumor, my dear.” He smiled indulgently at his wife. “I believe one of the guests at a party last night mentioned that he might have a shady past.”
“John, a shady past?” She grinned as though the thought amused her. “I’ll have to ask him about that.”
“There you go, spoiling all my adventurous tendencies,” Mary pouted in amusement.
Bailey forced a believable laugh from her lips and kept her expression light. Rumors weren’t circulating very well; thankfully, they remained for the most part contained. The families she grew up with gossiped among themselves, but it didn’t go farther. Rather like honor among thieves. Or what used to be honor among thieves.
“Mary has always been fascinated by our pasts.” Raymond’s tone was surprisingly affectionate, as was the glance he shot his wife. “She believes agency work was all danger and romance.”
“Boring background checks, stale coffee, and sweaty greasy-haired gunrunners and drug lords,” Bailey murmured with amused mockery. “Don’t we miss it so much?”
“Even after fourteen years?” Mary asked. “You must have enjoyed your work, dear?”
Bailey shook her head. Joy wasn’t a word she would have used to describe how she felt about her career. “It was a job no one wanted me to have,” she said, wondering if that wasn’t the real reason she had chosen it. “I realized too late what I was turning my back on.”
“Rebellion,” Mary sighed. “Your parents worried.”
“And Father screamed and yelled and totally disapproved,” she revealed with a fond smile. “It took me a while to grow up.”
She didn’t glance back at Raymond, but she could feel him watching her as he took in her words, her tone, her expression. For all her hatred of him, she knew he had been damned good at what he did at the agency. She wasn’t about to discount his instincts or training.
But she was damned good at what she did as well.
The conversation shifted to more general topics as drinks arrived. Bailey let herself settle into the routine of it as she forced back the revulsion she felt at sharing a meal with a traitor. She’d shared meals with worse, she assured herself.
“I hope you don’t mind, Bailey, but I invited a few other guests to lunch,” Raymond suddenly announced as the waiter appeared at the table. “It was rather last-minute.”
Turning to him, Bailey arched a brow. “Of course not, Raymond. It was very kind of you to invite me as well.”
His smile was more confident now and if she wasn’t mistaken the thin curve of it was more arrogant. She would have thought it would be impossible for him to display more self-appoval.
He nodded to the waiter, who hurried off as though he were carry
ing top-secret information on a deadline.
A few minutes later she looked up and had to fight to control her expression. She could feel the rage rising inside her fast and hard, like a tidal wave beating against a flood wall, threatening to overpower it.
Where Bailey controlled the rage, held it back and hid it, Ford wasn’t nearly as adept. He approached the table slowly, his weathered face tight, his dark gray eyes almost black with anger as he glanced between his sister and brother-in-law.
Slender, graceful male hands moved to the buttons of his silk jacket as he released them with an irritated jerk before he accepted his seat from the waiter with a brief “Thank you.”
Bailey inhaled slowly, evenly. It would seem odd if she didn’t show some reaction to his sudden appearance.
“You didn’t tell me you had invited anyone else, Ray,” he said stiffly to his brother-in-law.
“I’m sorry, Ford, Mary mentioned wanting to see Bailey. I felt the two of you should bury the hatchet, so to speak. This enmity isn’t conducive to good business relationships. Besides, I know how you hate gossip,” Raymond said evenly, smoothly. “People are beginning to gossip.”
